The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has urged a former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara to stop hiding under the umbrella of religion to attack the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kassim Shetimma.
According to the statement by APC on Monday, Dogara is an unstable politician who is pained that he lost out to Shettima in the race to emerge as the party’s vice presidential candidate for the 2023 election.
Instead of attempting to cause further disaffection in the party, the APC statement issued by the Director, Media & Publicity of the Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga urged Dogara to accept defeat.
Naija News reports Onanuga was reacting to the outcome of a consultative meeting and dialogue between Northern APC Christian Leaders and Northern Muslim Political Leaders held on Saturday, October 8, 2022, at NAF Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja.
The meeting of the northern religious and political leaders was in line with the resolve of Christian leaders within the ruling camp, led by the immediate-past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal.
The political stakeholders are working with their Muslim counterparts in the North to adopt one of the presidential candidates in a bid to defeat the same-faith presidential ticket of the APC.
They Are Fake
However, Onanuga said those at the meeting are not members of the APC but impostors hired by Dogara and his loyalists.
He claimed the attendees are opportunists and selfish people, not northern Christians as claimed.
The statement claimed that: “The Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council is therefore not surprised by media reports about a meeting of some so-called Northern Christian leaders, who claimed to be members of our All Progressives Congress that were championed by Dogara and his ilks.
“The claim was fraudulent.
“Yakubu Dogara, the peripatetic and politically unstable politician who organised the meeting left our party officially and unceremoniously weeks ago. And those who attended the meeting were representing themselves, their selfish agenda, not Northern Christians.
They Are PDP, Not APC Members
Onanuga stated also that the roll call of those who attended the meeting shows they were members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) working for Atiku Abubakar, not APC as claimed.
“A careful reading of the people who attended the unholy meeting he called also showed that they were all PDP members, masquerading as APC members.
“Among the politicians at the unholy consultative meeting were Mukhar Shagari, Boni Haruna, Abdulfattah Ahmed; Damishi Sango; Senator Idris Ahmed Umar; and two former deputy governors of Kogi State, Yomi Awoniyi and Simon Achuba. They are all PDP members working for the presidential ambition of Atiku Abubakar.”
Atiku Snatched PDP Ticket
Hitting at the PDP presidential candidate, Onanuga claimed Atiku violated the rotation principle to clinch his party’s presidential ticket and has plunged the party into crisis because of his action.
He wondered how such a person can claim to have plans of uniting Nigeria.
“The APC PCC wondered how the assembly of strange bedfellows hoped to foster unity and cohesion in our country, when their candidate represents the antithesis of the goal, having emerged the greatest divider of our polity, between the north and south.
“All Nigerians are aware that Atiku’s emergence as the PDP presidential candidate grossly violated a power rotation code between the north and the south. His insistence on snatching and retaining what righly belongs to another political region has triggered a crisis within his party, making him run from Port Harcourt to London to mend fences.
Tinubu/Shettima Candidacy Remains The Best Option
The APC presidential campaign spokesperson added that the Tinubu/Shettima presidency is what Nigeria needs.
“We want to assure Dogara and his co-travellers fanning hate campaign against our Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, that they will fail spectacularly at the polls.”
“From the engagements our leaders have had with men of all faiths, bigotry will not win next February election. What will prevail are the track records of our candidates and the solution-driven and all-inclusive progressive programmes the candidates offer Nigerians.
“Asiwaju Tinubu and Senator Shettima are going into this campaign with clear objectives to engage Nigerians across the socio-economic brackets on policy actions that will make their lives better. Our candidates will not exploit our country’s fault lines to win the election and sell religion as Kool-Aid.,” he said.
Add Comment